Russian stocks flat on sanctions worries, oil price fall

MOSCOW, Apr 8 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed with marginal changes on Thursday as worries about sanctions against Moscow and pressure on oil prices were balanced by growing foreign markets, analysts said.

The MOEX Russia Index grew 0.21% to 3,507.83, and the RTS index increased 0.76% to 1,440.43.

"The local market rose in the first half of the day. But morning optimism weakened noticeably. The dynamics of indices in Europe was not as pronounced as in Asia, oil remained in the negative zone and there was no certainty about the foreign policy issues," Andrei Kochetkov, leading analyst at Otkritie Broker for global research, said.

"Media reports about possible sanctions against Russia are of no threat to the economy but restrictions can affect the top government officials and businessmen, which is reflected in some shares to a certain extent.”

Kochetkov said that the oil market was under the pressure of COVID reports as the AstraZeneca vaccine ceased to be seen as safe and Johnson and Johnson saw production issues that will not allow it to raise sales fast. India set new contagion records, which signals that the virus is not backing down.  

Veles Capital analyst Yelena Kozhukhova said that a positive trend on the European markets and in the U.S. futures prevented Russian sales.

According to Kochetkov, Gazprom was among the loss leaders on the news about approval of two versions of sanctions against Nord Stream 2.

Sistema increased 3.32% after reporting a 5.7% rise of revenue in 2020, the analyst said.

Below are the MOEX Russia Index’ five most active stocks on Thursday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-0.09	283.72	14.152
Norilsk Nickel	+0.84	23800	8.428
Lukoil	+0.14	5986.5	4.295
Gazprom	-0.25	223.95	4.080
Yandex	+1	4893.6	3.225

(77.7730 – U.S. $1)

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